Bailey and Agility!
We've been to our first agility class and Bailey loves it! She fearlessly crosses the dog walk and goes through the tunnel! The tunnel took a bit of work but she's got the hang of it I think. She's great at the jumps (we worked on jumps at home) and the only thing that needs work is her weave poles, but the trainer said that those are the hardest to teach anyway. She sits and stays on the table wonderfully too, I hadn't realized how awesome Bailey is! I'm so used to her being crazy when we go out, I guess it's cause everywhere is outdoors and we need a lot of work on heeling outside. But inside she's the best! Now, we're still having issues with her and other dogs. She's okay while we're out in the training area, but when we're near the others she will get weird. What she does is out of nowhere, she'll start glaring at the other dog (who is totally ignoring her and five feet away, not even looking in her direction) and then do a very low, quiet growl. If I don't stop her right away, she barks. I stop her by getting her attention back to me by either physically turning her towards me or shaking the treat bag, depending on if she's started growling or not. If she's just started staring I'll shake the bag, if she's growling or barking I turn her to me and say NO in a very stern voice. That's what the trainer said for me to do, I'm wondering if you guys might have some advice for me cause what the trainer told me to do doesn't seem to work too well, she just goes back to it within a couple minutes if I don't keep her attention on me the whole time. I don't like having to hold her attention the whole time, she doesn't get to relax at all inbetween her turns if I do that, and our class is almost two hours long. She also said I need to be more firm with Bailey, in regards to obedience and agility work, which I'm not sure why since she is wonderful at doing what I want her to when she understands what I'm asking for, the only time she doesn't do what I'm asking is when she's not sure what I want. She tries, she ever jumped on top of the tunnel because that's what she thought I wanted when we were trying to get her to go through.  She didn't even try to run off when we started working off lead, she stayed right with me the whole time. She tugs a bit on the lead when we first go in cause she wants to sniff everything, but as soon as we start working she is right there with me and so so focused. So I'm a bit confused about that. I'd understand if the class was outside, cause I know Bailey won't focus on me outside since there's so much to smell and chase (and we are working on that, slowly but surely) but the class is inside and Bailey is definitely listening to me. |
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| In regards to growling at other dogs...I have to keep Simon's attention on me at all times. If I don't he will bark, growl, and lunge. Perfectly normal sheepdog behavior. Some folks are lucky and their dogs are not fazed by it but not mine. I keep his attention on me my having him sit, lay, come, treats...whatever works. Doing this makes it hard to pay attention in class and thats where a crate comes in. There are several around the building where I train and Simon has "his", the one we always use. I just tell him crate and he runs right to it. At the place I used to train there were no crates so I just brought my own. I used to have to cover the crate so he couldn't see anything and set up a bark fest but now he just goes in and settles. |
| There are crates at our building, I'll probably try letting her hang out in there. She likes to get cozy in her crate at home, so she might prefer being in one at class. I've had other people tell me her growling is most likely a fear thing, so maybe the crate will help her to be less afraid. |
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